md2pdf

Convert Markdown to PDF with Mermaid diagram support, customizable branding, and syntax highlighting.

Features

• Mermaid diagrams rendered to SVG
• Customizable branding (colors, fonts, header/footer)
• Professional A4 layout with page numbers
• Syntax highlighting for code blocks
• PDF outline/bookmarks from heading hierarchy

Usage

Docker

# Convert a file
docker run --rm -v $(pwd):/docs -v $(pwd)/output:/output ghcr.io/gluendo/md2pdf README.md

# Convert all .md files in a directory
docker run --rm -v $(pwd):/docs -v $(pwd)/output:/output ghcr.io/gluendo/md2pdf docs/

Output: output/<filename>_YYYYMMDD-HHmm.pdf

VSCode Extension

Install from Open VSX:

• VSCodium: Search "MD2PDF" in the extensions panel, or run codium --install-extension gluendo.md2pdf
• VSCode: Download the .vsix from Open VSX and install with code --install-extension md2pdf-*.vsix

The extension adds a Convert Markdown to PDF command accessible from:

• Command palette (Cmd+Shift+P / Ctrl+Shift+P)
• Editor title bar (when viewing a .md file)
• Right-click context menu (editor or explorer)

Requires Chrome or Chromium installed locally (auto-detected, or set md2pdf.chromePath in settings).

Extension Settings

Setting	Default	Description
md2pdf.chromePath	(auto-detect)	Path to Chrome/Chromium executable
md2pdf.outputDirectory	(same as source)	Directory for output PDFs
md2pdf.timestampSuffix	true	Append timestamp to filename
md2pdf.brand.name	Document	Brand name for metadata
md2pdf.brand.header	(brand name)	PDF header text (right-aligned)
md2pdf.brand.footer		PDF footer text (left side)
md2pdf.brand.colors.primary	#1a365d	Headings, table headers
md2pdf.brand.colors.accent	#3182ce	Links, blockquote borders
md2pdf.brand.colors.secondary	#2c7a7b	H3 headings
md2pdf.brand.font.family	system-ui, ...	Body font family
md2pdf.brand.font.url	null	Web font URL (e.g. Google Fonts)

The extension also reads a brand.json file from the workspace root if present, with VSCode settings taking precedence.

Custom Branding

Docker

Create a brand.json file and mount it:

docker run --rm \
  -v $(pwd):/docs \
  -v $(pwd)/output:/output \
  -v $(pwd)/brand.json:/app/brand.json \
  ghcr.io/gluendo/md2pdf doc.md

brand.json format

{
  "name": "My Company",
  "header": "My Company",
  "footer": "Confidential",
  "colors": {
    "primary": "#1a365d",
    "accent": "#3182ce",
    "secondary": "#2c7a7b"
  },
  "font": {
    "family": "Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif"
  }
}

Field	Description
name	Document title
header	Text in PDF header (top-right)
footer	Text in PDF footer (bottom-left)
colors.primary	Headings, table headers
colors.accent	Links, highlights
colors.secondary	H3 headings
font.family	Font family
font.url	Web font import URL (optional)

Shell Alias

Add to your ~/.bashrc or ~/.zshrc:

md2pdf() {
  docker run --rm -v "$(pwd):/docs" -v "$(pwd)/output:/output" ghcr.io/gluendo/md2pdf "$@"
}

Then use: md2pdf README.md

Architecture

The project is a monorepo with three packages:

packages/
  core/     Shared conversion library (markdown, mermaid, PDF generation)
  cli/      CLI tool used by the Docker image
  vscode/   VSCode extension

Both the CLI and the VSCode extension use @md2pdf/core for all conversion logic.

Development

# Install dependencies
npm install

# Build all packages
npm run build -w packages/core
npm run build -w packages/cli
npm run build -w packages/vscode

# Run tests
npm test -w packages/core

License

MIT